Prusa's INDX wipes 13 milligrams per tool change instead of priming a purge tower

A tool on this machine holds a nozzle and a filament path, and nothing inside it moves; the extruder Prusa calls the "smart head" does the driving ^[2]. Bondtech lists an individual tool at $45 ^[11]. The expensive part is built once and shared across up to eight tools ^[2][3].

Every toolchanger has to prime a nozzle before it prints, and that priming is what builds the tower of scrap next to the part ^[4]. Prusa's wiper fires a blob of about 13 milligrams per change into a 3D-printed bin mounted on the outside of the right-hand indent in the frame ^[5][6]. Tom's Hardware calls the INDX the first multicolor printer to ditch the prime tower ^[4].

The waste figure comes from one comparison. Tom's Hardware ran the same model with similar settings on the INDX and on a Bambu Lab H2C, and measured 83.58 grams less waste on the INDX, not counting supports, with the print finishing nearly nine hours sooner ^[7]. At 13 milligrams a wipe, 83.58 grams is roughly 6,400 tool changes ^[20]. A part with two changes per layer will not recover that gap, and a single-color bracket recovers none of it.

Two conditions sit under the number. The H2C is, per the review, the closest machine to a toolchanger that Bambu currently has in production ^[8]. The INDX print also ran three more colors than the H2C print ^[7], and more colors means more changes and more purge, so the extra work sat on the INDX side of the test. And it is one model from one operator, who also found the INDX faster and less wasteful than every other toolchanger on the bench ^[23].

Adoption cost, for someone who already owns a CORE One: $749 for the four-tool conversion kit, $999 for eight ^[10]. The $250 step works out to $62.50 per added tool against the $45 Bondtech charges for one ^[21]. Prusa does not currently price individual toolheads, though you can start at four and add more later ^[11]. Prusa puts the install at 5 to 6 hours; the reviewer spent the better part of a weekend stripping and rebuilding a machine as an early Founder's Edition ^[12]. Whole printers run from $1,699 for the four-tool DIY kit to $2,119 assembled with eight tools, a Buddy Cam and Advanced filtration ^[9]. That $420 spread also covers the assembly labour and the two accessories ^[22]. The review says the hardest part of the experience is working out from the website which combination of printer and kit you need ^[19].

The review lists exactly two drawbacks: the price, and no profile for Flex at launch ^[13]. For gasket and TPU work that profile is the gate. It is software, so the date it lands is the date of a slicer release. Against that, the machine can run completely offline ^[14], the Bondtech kit can be bought on its own and mounted on any open-source printer you care to mod ^[16], and a pre-mounted CORE One prints about ten minutes after it comes out of the box ^[17].

Tom's Hardware's verdict says the partnership "has produced a machine other manufacturers can't wait to copy" ^[15]. The copyable piece is the wiper and the bin. Prusa and Bondtech have been shipping hardware together since the MK3 in 2017 ^[18].